Naruto and Hinata's Infinite Playlist
by Melancholy of the Cello
Summary: A collection of vignettes/oneshots based on the music I listen to. A mix of angsty, fluffy, romantic, and sad NaruHina stories as diverse as my music playlists. Post-Chapter 698/699 and during the 699 to 700 interim mostly. M to be safe!
1. Tennis Courts

**Heya guys! So, Chapter 700 has been out for a few weeks now, and so Naruto, after 15 years, is over. I began my Naruto journey when I was around 8 years old, tuning in on Toonami every week for my favorite Knucklehead ninja. I've only ever written one NaruHina story, which I have never completed (I'm so sorry for those who have read it!) and that was years ago, and no longer reflects my skills as a writer, or my hopes for this now canon pairing.**

**Again, the last and only NaruHina story I wrote was never completed and actually left behind for some SasuHina fics. But as my childhood OTP is canon now, I wanted to resume writing Naruto and Hinata pairing fics and to keep myself honest, I have created this collection of vignettes/oneshots! So, this way they really are separate stories and don't, therefore, have a specific plot. Thus, no pressure for me to continue writing if things change (which they often do with me!). **

**I've put my numerous playlists on shuffle and selected, so far, about 30 songs at random to write one oneshot per song, that is obviously inspired by that song.**

**So without further ado,**

**~M.o.t.C**

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><p><em>Don't you think that it's boring, how people talk…<br>Baby be the class clown,  
>I'll be the beauty queen in tears<br>It's a new art form, showing people how little we care…_

-_Tennis Court, _Lorde

Hinata has been thinking a lot about her parents recently. She's never thought so much about the love between them until now. Was it ever challenged? Did anyone ever question Hiashi's love for her mother? Hyuuga men were never really that outwardly affectionate anyway.

When they went out, how tightly did Hiashi have to grip her mother's hand? How long did she have to stare, longingly into his eyes? How many "I love you's" did they both have to say, within earshot of strangers, for it to be considered gospel?

Hinata realizes their situations aren't the same. She remembers she is outside. People are watching. Girls look with contempt, with confusion.

(After all, her with him?)

Hinata felt her grip on Naruto's hand loosen. He reacts by holding hers more tightly.

Good. That means she isn't crazy. This is real.

(Or maybe, she just imagined that tightening, maybe she imagined that reassuring gesture.)

After the war, Hinata developed a particular fondness for the indoors. She grew extremely grateful for secluded moments with Naruto, when, in the beginning of their relationship, she could only find unease. After all, in the beginning, she was afraid Naruto would emerge from some ridiculous stupor in their private moments in his home. She was afraid, that when all their friends went home, when the bustling city center turned into the quiet of the Hyuuga compound, or when the haunting silence of his apartment began to seep into her consciousness, he would awaken from genjutsu and realize his error of having been romantically involved with a weirdo like her. And he would leave.

But, those terrible thoughts had left her mind…

New, insidious ones are taking form. Now, again, she rejoices in these once terrifying moments with her boyfriend. When he looks at her, it is with reverence and disbelief, as if he can't believe that this girl loves him or would die for him. She can see that. His gaze alone sets her cheeks ablaze.

When villagers look at her, on his arm, it is also with disbelief.

"What an odd pair," she heard a girl say once in passing.

"I thought the hero of the village would pick…I dunno, someone else? She's so timid and meek."

Now, he is always gentle, when he touches her. When he holds her hand, he always does it with a certain grace that most of their friends would swear he should never even be capable of. But now, as the skin of their hands press against one another's, it hurt. It is painful. Villagers' eyes were magnifying glasses, directing the sunlight as beams onto their flesh. How could he not feel it?

Her grip loosens even more.

He doesn't tighten this time.

Maybe he is getting the hint. Maybe he, too, is starting to feel the burn.

They are silly, her feelings. Ridiculous. They have held hands once before, during the war, and she had never felt so powerful. So alive. So in love.

(Of course, that was the chakra making her feel this way. What he was transferring to her was power in the form of energy. Her hand was the closest thing of hers to him.

That's all…)

"Hinata, I love you," Naruto says.

He has said it before. Of course he has. The first time, she was sure she wasn't just going to faint. She was sure her heart was going to race until it stopped. She would be the first woman to die of happiness.

The first time he said those words, she could see he had readied himself to catch her. Like he always has. He's always been there to catch her.

She just sighed. It was a sigh of relief, with a twinge of relaxed impatience. She would have been lying to herself if she said she hadn't been waiting years to hear those words, like one who waits for a letter in the mail from their lover.

"You, too," Hinata said simply, timidly, "but, of course, you already knew that…"

She didn't faint. She never cried. She didn't become the first woman to die of happiness…

(Maybe she didn't love him that much after all.)

"Wait…what?" she says now. She's missing something. Something important. She wants him to say it again. Say it again.

"I said, 'I love you', Hinata." He says it louder this time.

He's looking at her now. His blue eyes are staring straight into her own. His hand is tightening again.

How long will he stare? How many times does he have to say "I love you"? Must his grip tear at her flesh?

No.

People are looking at them. They always are.

"Naruto…" she whispers, frantically looking around at all the generic faces who are gazing at their hero.

"I love you, Hinata Hyuuga!" he's shouting now, "If anyone questions that, then they're idiots!"

Deep blush covers Hinata's cheeks. Why is he always so loud?

The whole street, pedestrians, shopkeepers, fellow ninja, they're all looking now. His smile is goofy and wide…

"H-how did you know?" she asks him softly. The stares have died down.

"It's all over your face," he replies calmly, quietly.

She smiles. They are the only two people on this Earth now.

Good. That means it's real.

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><p><strong>I think this fic was just me giving the finger to naruto fandom tumblr who put down the ship (mostly just Hinata, anyway). <strong>

**Next up...a song by Escape the Fate.**

**Review if you can please! Thanks!**


	2. When I Go Out

**With this one, please listen to the song first or even after or even during (if you can listen to music and read at the same time). Copied and pasted lyrics-actually, I know this song by heart so that's a lie-don't do this song justice. It's my favorite Escape the Fate song so I hope I did right by it.**

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><p><em>I was a ghost, I was there at the scene<em>

_As the embers rose, my hands smelled like gasoline…_

_You're the only one that wore your seatbelt; we're the only ones that cried_

_Catastrophic accidents, you're the only one that died._

_So, keep my casket closed. Your heartbeat's under the floor,_

_It haunts me in my dreams, and nothing's as it seems…_

_Hallelujah!_

_-When I Go Out, I Want to Go Out on a Chariot of Fire, _Escape the Fate

I.

It used to be that Hinata would wake up in the middle of the night crying. It used to be when Hinata had nightmares, she would look for Neji.

For some reason he'd always be up.

Maybe he had nightmares, too.

Now, the first few nights are particularly difficult, and so when she ventures quietly out of her room, tip-toeing with appropriate stealth, Neji isn't sitting outside anymore.

She doesn't know why she keeps forgetting.

II.

Aren't big brothers supposed to always be there for you? Hinata used to make that same promise to her sister.

She doesn't anymore.

III.

Naruto's a crier. Hinata discovered that a month or so after the funeral when he, for some reason, wanted to spend a whole day with her. Just her and him.

When he started to tear up, after he passively mentioned Neji over a bowl of ramen, Hinata remembered the first time he had shown his vulnerability to her, just before he was about to face her cousin in the chuunin exams.

She remembered Neji's anger towards her, in those days that seemed so ancient. Archaic. She finally understood his hatred. It made sense. It was justifiable.

She curses Neji now. She hates him. Her hate makes sense. It's justifiable.

Why did he take that from her? Why couldn't he let her be selfish, be a sacrifice just like she had been before? Why did he have to take matters into his own hands?

Ninja always seemed to want to handle things on their own. Defend their loved ones on their own, protect on their own, cry on their own, and feel pain on their own. Hinata never understood that.

Maybe she is being a hypocrite. Maybe she has not considered how much Neji loved her.

What good is being alone?

When she had begun to cry, she was glad she would never have to discover the answer to that question, as Naruto grabbed her hand.

IV.

Hinata called for Neji three times. Once, because as she was being jarred awake by the vision of her cousin's lifeless eyes, the feeling that she could not stand, could not stay lucid enough to walk out of her room to find him, began to overwhelm her. He would have to come to her.

Twice, because he did not answer. He did not come running in like she expected he would. Like he did when she was protecting Naruto and he…

Three times, because the idea that he would not answer, could not answer, was looming in, clouding her mind and maybe the sound of his name echoing after rushing forth from her lips could permeate that fog.

A hand tugged gently at her arm. Her eyes, at that moment filled with excitement and light, turned dull and uninviting when blue, not Byakugan eyes, gazed into her own.

She realized that she was in a bed. Her husband—that felt strange in her mind, husband did—was sharing it with her.

"Hinata." Naruto began groggily, "are you alright?"

"Naruto..." she started wearily, "I...I'm so sorry, I just-I thought N..."

"Shh..." he mused softly and patiently, "it's okay. I get them, too."

He was sitting up now. The shinobi wiped sleep from his eyes with one bandaged hand and rubbed Hinata's back with the other.

He pulled her to him, wrapping her in an embrace that filled her with more emotion than she started out with, like a person that is completely composed until someone comes along and utters those damning words, "Are you okay?"

"I'm right here," he said, "just like you have always been here for me."

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><p><strong>I'm still a bit bitter about Neji's death...I notice that when I explore Hinata and Neji's dynamic and write it, it can verge on shippy, so if it somehow sounds in this oneshot that I ship NejiHina-well, I mean, I do ship them-<em>I'm sorry<em>. **

**Apparently I listen to really depressing music, so I can't really guarantee the next oneshot won't be sad.**

**Thanks guys!**

**~M.o.t.C**


	3. Stay High, Part 1

_You're gone and I gotta stay high  
>All the time to keep you off my mind…<em>

_-Stay High_, Tove Lo

"Hurry home," Hinata said with a timid smile on her face.

"I will, I promise!" her husband replied cheerily, as usual, as he pulled her to him. He wrapped her in a warm, long embrace. He seemed unwilling to let his wife go, as if their parting would kill him. She was starting to feel that way, too.

"I love you," he said earnestly. His lips were so close to her ear she could feel his breath tickle at her earlobe as the words flowed out effortlessly and cleanly, like water. His eyes twinkled as they usually did when he looked at her. She never really did get used to his gaze. It was always rapturous, passionate, and heart melting. (Hinata quickly pushed aside the thought that these adjectives also described their bedroom activity too, and tried to her blushing with her long hair.) In these times, Hinata remembered always to save this look he gave her in her vast memory. It would be a while before she would see it again.

Naruto knelt down slowly to her round, protruding belly and kissed it, hoping that his love would reach his child growing steadily inside. A soft smile had shown through pursed lips on his face. He was going to miss this. He was going to miss her. He was going to miss waking up to her smile every morning, the way she smelled…like the fresh scent of summertime flowers, and her beautiful, absolutely tantalizing laugh. Nothing made him happier.

"Hey, fuckhead, let's go already!" Kiba's voice sounded above the calm…

…Absolutely fucking destroying it.

Naruto sneered into his wife's belly and stood up. He sighed and looked into Hinata's eyes again, mumbling what he always did when Kiba was being an _annoying shithead_, "How could you stand that guy all these years?"

And Hinata replied how she always did when Kiba was being…._difficult_…, "He's not so bad, really."

"C'mon, Naruto!" Kiba started up again, "It's bad enough we have to take _you _instead of Hinata 'cause you couldn't keep your dick in your—"

"Kiba!" Hinata and Shino interrupted simultaneously. Hinata had never been so scandalized. They were in public at the _gates_ after all!

"—pants," Kiba continued shamelessly, "but you literally do this every time there's a mission. You take the duration of all of the Shinobi World Wars to say goodbye to her. It's not that long of a mission! It's not even like it's S-class!"

"You aren't married, Kiba," Shino interjected matter-of-factly, "you wouldn't get it anyway."

"Oh, like you do?" Kiba replied, his face contorting with annoyance at his teammate, "Do you even have a girlfriend?"

"Not really my thing," Shino retorted stoically.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," Naruto groaned out. This was gonna be a long damn trip. What would Shikamaru say to this? Oh yeah…

"What a drag," the Uzumaki said aloud as he trudged towards his temporary teammates.

"Alright, let's go Kiba and…" Naruto hesitated, looking directly at Shino's black goggles, "…uh…?"

Shino stopped walking and soon Kiba and Naruto had to as well. Hinata was watching this and groaned inwardly…

Naruto laughed aloud, "I'm just messing with you Shino! You think I'd really forget you after you've done so much for me all these years?"

…not that damn joke again.

"That joke wasn't funny the last six fucking times!" Kiba shouted at a sniggering Jinchuuriki.

Naruto began walking again and the others followed quickly behind, leaving Konoha limits. While Shino did so wordlessly, Kiba, on the other hand, wouldn't shut up about whatever. For whatever reason, whenever he was with Naruto, he felt the need to talk constantly. When it was just team eight…that is, with Hinata instead of her husband, he was generally quiet.

Must have been a male bravado thing. Maybe it was just because whenever Kiba said something to Naruto it was usually teasing or goading and most of the time, Naruto didn't figure out it was wisest to just not respond.

"Can you shut the fuck up?! I did not take Hinata to Ichiraku's on our first date…She just suggested it!" Hinata heard Naruto shout at an especially jocular Kiba.

"_Cheap ass_," she heard Kiba yell back.

Hinata felt a twinge of guilt for the position she had put Shino in.

And a twinge of loneliness as she watched Naruto's back fade until not even her Byakugan eye could see it…

Hinata had been cleaning the house, awaiting Naruto's arrival the following morning when she heard a knock at the door.

_That can't be him already_, Hinata thought, though her increased heartbeat betrayed her thoughts, _it just couldn't be_. _It takes at least two days to get back from…_

"Hinata!" Sakura's voice penetrated the door between her and the intended recipient of her call, "You in there, huh?"

Hinata's heart dropped a little. It was irrational to be so sad, she knew, but still…

"Hold on," she called out and made her way to the front door.

Sakura heard the door click open slowly and she tapped her foot in impatience to see her friend. She had seen Hinata the morning of Naruto's departure with Team Eight. The Hyuga and Uzumaki were walking hand in hand when she had ran into them. Naruto looked as cheerful and bright as ever, not at all phased by this A-rank mission he was assigned. But Hinata…Hinata was smiling, too, but Sakura could tell…

The door creaked open and Hinata stuck her head outside, "Hi, Sakura!" Hinata greeted.

Sakura looked…_stern_…mad even. She had often seen Sakura give Naruto this look when they were younger when she found out he wasn't keeping up with his vegetable diet, but something made Hinata think this wasn't about whether or not she was getting her daily dose of vitamins and minerals. Although she _was_ pregnant, so maybe she was here to chastise her about taking care of herself during pregnancy.

"You need to get out of this house, Hinata," Sakura commanded, "it's been four days and I haven't seen you at all!" Sakura stepped inside, as brusquely as she usually did—which Naruto usually yelled at her for; which, once, resulted in a ten minute long argument between the two that almost ended in two broken windows, three smashed teacups, and two extremely bruised egos as Hinata put both of them in their place—and sat down on the sofa, her expression softened considerably.

"I mean," Hinata began, "I don't want anything to happen to the—"

"Hinata, you're only like just beginning your second trimester," Sakura interrupted coolly, "we both know this isn't about the baby. We both know you can still go outside…"

Who was Hinata to argue with Konoha's best medic-nin?

"So what is this really about? Naruto?" Sakura continued, clearly aware she hit the nail on the head as Hinata's expression changed.

"I…" Hinata began, taking her usual spot next to Sakura on the couch. She wasn't sure how to express what she was feeling. What _was_ she feeling? She never really did much outside or socializing when Naruto was gone. It always seemed, impertinent? No…wrong?

Yes. Wrong.

It made her feel guilty. Whenever Naruto was gone on a mission and she found herself not thinking about him, she was overwhelmed with disappointment in herself. Her being pregnant only intensified this feeling.

"I'm worried," Hinata confessed, "about him…I worry constantly."

Sakura flashed her friend a sympathetic look, "He's in good hands with Shino and Kiba."

Hinata, inwardly, felt annoyed by that statement. Of course he was in good hands. They were her teammates and she knew their skill sets and abilities well, better than anyone really. She also knew they cared deeply about her and by extension, Naruto. Although she also knew that with all of Kiba's bullshit and Shino's silence, they cared for Naruto independently of Hinata. That was what camaraderie was, and the Konoha 11 had that in spades.

Outwardly, she replied, "Of course, still, I'm scared…I can't have fun with Naruto's well-being constantly on my mind."

Sakura understood what that was. Sasuke had just come back from wandering the earth, and there wasn't a day that went by that she did not worry about his safety. Not like that changed much at all since they were children.

"Well, we should at least give it a good ninja academy try!"

Hinata raised an eyebrow but didn't even have time to put it back down to its original position again before she was being shoved out of the house she shared with her husband (and, really, sometimes Sakura, or Shino and Kiba, or Sasuke…) and onto the streets of Konoha by an ever eager Sakura Haruno.


	4. Stay High, Part 2

_Gotta stay high all my life,  
>to keep from missing you.<em>

-_Stay High, _Tove Lo

Hinata Hyuuga-Uzumaki realized, as she stepped into the threshold of the home of Ino Yamanaka, that saying no to Sakura and to the idea of leaving the relative comfort of her own home would not have been an option.

All the girls Hinata had bonded with so well throughout her life—Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and eventually Temari and Karui—were all gathered in the living room of Ino's garish household, sipping tea and nibbling on small cakes.

"Look who's here!" Sakura announces to the collective at their arrival. The door to Ino's home was already open and unlocked, signaling yet again to Hinata that she would have been dragged here, kicking and screaming, if she had refused. But, upon seeing the smiling and adoring looks on her girlfriends' faces, she's glad she didn't refuse.

"Hinata!" Ino is the first to shout out. The blonde runs to her pregnant friend and comrade and gives her a tight and somewhat overwhelming hug. The other girls follow suit, each taking their turn to greet and embrace the Hyuuga.

"We hadn't seen you around in quite a bit," Tenten said after she was the last to hug Hinata, "so at Sakura's prompting, we all planned this small little baby shower for you, to cheer you up."

"Yeah," Temari chimed in, "we know you're not a big fan of parties, and we know this is a bit early for a baby shower, so we hope we didn't do more harm than good."

The other girls nodded amongst each other in agreement. Sakura, still standing at Hinata's side, leaned forward at an apparent attempt to get a better look at the Hyuuga's face.

"Hinata…" Sakura started, her eyes narrowed in concern, "…are you alright?"

The young woman turned to Sakura, her face shifting to express her _own _confusion. She looked back at the girls who had now retaken their seats in Ino's living room. Any conversation had ceased. All eyes—wrought with looks of concern—were on Hinata.

_Why are they all looking at me like that…?_

"Hinata, we're sorry! We didn't mean to make you cry!" Ino said, and she ran up to the Byakugan user again and hugged her once more. When the blonde let go of her, Hinata raised a small palm to her face and realized, when warm water touched the coldness of her hand, she indeed _had _been crying.

"O-oh," she began, her voice no higher than a whisper, "I'm sorry. I'm not sad or anything, I guess I just…" All the girls were still staring at her, which made her even _more _self-conscious, "This was so nice of all of you to do for me. I'm touched…and I'm really _happy_." Her lips spread into a smile and giggle escaped them. The tension seemed to fall from the room like autumn leaves from trees and happy faces replaced terrified glances.

"It might just be hormones then," Sakura said to Hinata next to her. The pink-haired woman led her friend to a large rocking chair with purple padding, "Sit here, Hinata," Sakura said and Hinata complied, happy to be off her feet for a little while.

Conversation quickly picked up after twenty minutes or so and to Hinata's embarrassment, most of it was aimed at her and her relatively new marriage to Konoha's number one, knuckleheaded ninja.

"You guys got married so quickly, I was amazed to receive an invitation to your wedding only four months after I had gone back home to Kumo and you only started dating a year or so before that," Karui commented as she ran her fingers through the length of her red hair.

"Well, you should have seen them those four months!" Ino exclaimed, "They were inseparable. It was almost nauseating, to see how much they loved each other. How much they still do."

"You two certainly do love hard, Hinata," Sakura replied, peering into her teacup. Her lips held the faintest trace of a smile as they touched the surface of the porcelain glass.

"I've never seen Naruto like _this_," Tenten said, nodding in agreement to the statements made before her, "who knew he was such a sap?"

Hinata smiled as she watched the conversation unfold and sometimes go off into tangents like colliding kunai. All this talk of Naruto wasn't doing very much, obviously, to help her mind be free of him, but she appreciated it nonetheless. Somehow, talking about him made her feel less guilty about not waiting at home dutifully for her husband.

Why she locked herself up in their home was a mystery to her now…well, at least, why she thought it would be beneficial. Sitting with her friends now made her feel less lonely and less like a damsel in distress, waiting for her knight in shining armor to save her from worry and guilt.

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><p><strong>AN: Not really what I was expecting this one to be...Not as short as I was expecting either but after getting to the end I realized I didn't want to write anymore of this and that it was fine ending where I ended it. Hope you all agree!**

**Up next, a song by Maroon 5... **

**~M.o.t.C**


	5. Sunday Morning

**This installment of _Naruto and Hinata's Infinite Playlist _is, coincidentally, also my entry for NaruHina Month, Day 19, _Intimacy_. (NH Month took place this past January). My other NH Month submissions can be read in the fic entitled _Elapsed Time._**

**_Thank you!_**

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><p><em>Sunday mornin' rain is fallin'<br>Steal some covers, share some skin  
>Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable<br>You twist to fit the mold that I am in… _

_-Sunday Morning,_Maroon 5

Hinata Hyuuga had learned a lot of things in ten years of marriage to Naruto Uzumaki. For one, she learned that, as she opened her gray eyes every morning, greeted with the picturesque vision of the sleeping face of her husband, she was the naturally early riser of the pair.

When her eyes flicked happily across Naruto's sleeping frame, rejoicing in the feeling of having another day with him, she remembered another lesson. She had been taught in their early months of wedded bliss that when touched too soon, when kissed awake too early, her husband's usually gentle, blue eyes would fix themselves in agitation at her for waking him up so soon. He would scowl and turn from her, practically daring her to try something like that again. So after that first time, she figured it best to let him rise on his own.

On rare mornings like this—paired with rare nights before them—Hinata would curl her toes, nails brushing against the sheets beneath her naked body, and remember the lesson that Naruto Uzumaki would teach her night after night. She'd blush at the thought, in this morning ritual, and glance down at her chest, covered by the clingy fabric of scented sheets.

Naruto's claim to fame was never that he was an especially smart guy. In book smarts, he was behind a lot of their friends, but, Hinata considered him to be an excellent teacher. He certainly knew how to make her feel beautiful…Make her know that she's desirable. Because after three children in which all were born from her own womb and fed in their infancy from her own breasts, sometimes she would forget what her husband had taught her as these things took their toll on her body. Sometimes she would need to relearn her own sex appeal and be reminded of the Hokage's attraction to her. But Naruto was a great teacher and greeted every lesson with patience and gentility as his expert hand and mouth guided her lessons…

And when the bell rang, the lesson now over, Naruto would reinforce his teachings with kisses to Hinata's battle scars. And he would whisper the words, "You're beautiful" in her ear as his hand rested on her biggest, most painful scar—the one she earned as she made the ultimate sacrifice for him, all those years ago…

For another, when her husband finally did wake—of his own accord of course—he would do so with a lazy and somewhat loud yawn. In their ritual, he would say, "Good morning," in a quiet and raspy voice, still fighting off the remaining bits of sleep that took hold of him. If Hinata's head still rested on her pillow, like it was this time, as she had taken to lying back down until her lover woke, he would reach for her face tentatively—she learned that the morning after their wedding night—and caressed it gently. She'd discovered after watching him wake each morning for six or so days, that he expected her to be a dream. A figment of his imagination. She learned in the fourth night of their marriage that Naruto liked to talk in his sleep and one night, as breath escaped his mouth as words instead of snores, he revealed to her the fear that he would wake up and realize Obito and Madara had won…that he was trapped in genjutsu, never really able to know the _true _feel of Hinata's skin against his palm again. And so when he woke each morning, he put his hand to her cheek and breathed in reality.

"Good morning, honey," Hinata would reply sweetly, each time burying her head a little bit more into her pillow. Sometimes, Naruto would sigh and bury his face in his pillow, exposing his bare back to the open air of the bedroom. When that happened, she would take her hand and reach it to Naruto's side of the bed—which she had learned would not _always _be the right; most nights, she would wake to find his legs sprawled across her own, his head no longer anywhere near his own pillow—and run it through his blond hair, massaging his scalp. Eventually, her fingers would find their way to the small of his neck and then trace lines along his spine, soon claiming home at the small of his back.

As Hinata's fingers worked to massage Naruto, he would stifle a moan into his pillow and mumble something about how much he loved her. He would turn his head and body to face her and smile at her, his eyes now, thanks to Hinata's earlier diligence, not filled with agitation, but instead with pure love.

"How were your dreams?" Hinata would ask the blond with a smile.

"Not as good as my reality," he would often reply, "How were yours?"

"You mean I'm not still in one?" she would respond and laugh.

Hinata been taught later on that, with time, and the right person, the nightmares she once had wouldn't make her throw up in the dead of night anymore, the screams they had once elicited from her would never threaten to wake and frighten her children anymore to the point where her fears became theirs, and that one day, she would no longer be afraid to let her eyes close at night. When they came, she was prepared. Naruto, who began to know his wife's worst fears and had explored the deepest, most insidious parts of her mind, was prepared. He promised to protect her and he kept that promise…

"Do you think the kids are up yet?" Naruto asked his wife, questioning how many more minutes they had until the stillness of a quiet Sunday morning erupted into chaos. Naruto rubbed his eyes and shaded them from bright light that peaked in through their blinds.

"If not, they will be soon, and expecting food, so I better get going," she replied and started untangling her legs from the sheets.

"I'll help you," the seventh Hokage said and started to get up himself.

"No, you won't Naruto," Hinata replied as slipped on her previously discarded underwear and found a robe to wear, too, "I know you have work to do. Shikamaru made me promise I'd make you get it done. You aren't doing anything but sitting in your office and getting it done, okay?"

The twenty-nine year old groaned, "Hina-chan, how can you be so cruel?" Hinata giggled and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. Naruto plopped back onto the bed, now being serenaded with the sounds of running shower water. Eventually, he realized that if Hinata saw him still in bed, he would see the side of his wife that he had learned _never _to trifle with, and so with that singular, scary thought in his mind, he grabbed some underwear and a robe and followed Hinata into the bathroom…

_"__No, Naruto! We don't have time for this!"_

_"__Come on, Hina…"_

_"__Naruto, no! The kids are going to be awake any second."_

_"__That's all the more reason to go for it now!"_

_"We're _not _making love in the shower. It's dangerous in here and we both have morning breath! I'm not kissing you, Naruto-kun!"_

In ten years of marriage, Hinata Hyuuga had learned a lot about Naruto Uzumaki. For one, she was made aware that after a marriage, three children, ten years, and an entire village to look after, Naruto Uzumaki, from sleep to waking, and everything in between, was a constant in a sea of change…

And she loved him for it.


End file.
